The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-05-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
An Easter Discourse on the "Over-
throw Of the Monster"


The Significance of Easter suuday-Evi-
dences OF . Final Resurrection
Victory Over Decentralization
OF Body and Soul.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject Of his Easter sermon at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle 'sThe Overthrow of the
Monster" taking for his text:
He will swallow up death in victory.-Isaiah
XIV, 8.
About 1853 Easter mornings have wax
ened the earth. In France for three cent
uries the almanacs made the year begin
at Easter, until Charles TX made the year
begin at January /. In the Tower of Lon
don there is royal payroll of Edward l.,
on which there is an entry of eighteen
pence for four hundred colored and pict-
ured Easter eggs, with which the people
sported. In Russia slaves were fed and
aims were distributed ON Easter.
Ecclesiastical councils met at Pontus,
at Gaul, at Rome, at Achala, to decide the
particular day, and after u controversy,
more animated than gracious, decided it,
and now through all Christendom, in some
way, the first Sunday after the full moon
which happens upon or next after March
q is filled with Easter rejoicing
The Royal Court of the Sabbaths is
made up of fifty-two. Fifty-one are
Princes in the royal household, but East
er is Queen. She wears a richer diadem
and sways more jeweled scepter, and in
: her smile nations are irradiated. Unusu-
ally welcome this year, because Of the
harsh winter and the late spring, she
seems to step out of the snow bank rath-
er than the conservatory, come out of the
North rather than the South, out of tho
Arctic, rather than the tropics, dismount-
ing from an icy equinox, but welcome this
queenly day, holding high up in her
right hand the wrenched-off bolt of
Christs sepulcher, and holding high up
IN her left hand the key to all the ceme-
teries in Christendom.
1t is an exciting thing to see an army
routed and flying. They run each other
down. They scatter every thing valuable
in the track. Unwheeled artillery, hoof
Of horse on breast OF wounded and dying
man. You have read of the French fall
ing back from Sedan, or Napoleon's trac k
of $1,000 corpses in the snow banks OF
Russia, or Of the retreat of our own arm
les from Manassas, or of the FIVE Kings
tumbling over the rocks of Bethoran with
their armies, while the hail-storms OF
heaven and the swords Of Joshua's host
struck them with their fury.
In my text is worse discontinue. II
seems that black giant proposed to con.
quer the earth. He gathered for his hos,
all the aches and pains and malarias and
cancers and distempers and epidemics OF
tho ages. He marched them down, drill
ing them in the northeast wind and amid
the slush of tempests. He threw up barri
cades Of grave-mounds He pitched tent
of charnel house. Some of the troop.
marched with slow tread commanded BY
consumptions, some in double-quick, com
manded by pneumonias. Some he took by
long besiegement Of evil habit, and some
by one stroke Of the battle. axe of casual
ty. With bony hand he pounded at the
door of hospitals and sick-rooms, and
won all the victories in all the great bat
tlefelds of all the Ave continents. For
ward, march, the conqueror of conquerors
and all the generals and commanders in
chief, and all presidents and kings ant
sultans and czars drop under the feet O.
his war charger.
But one Christmas night his antagonis
was born. As most of the plaques ant
sicknesses and despotisms come out o
the East, it was appropriate that tn,
new conqueror should come out of tn,
same quarter. Power is givel
him to awaken all the fallen o
all the centuries and Of all lands, an,
marshal them against the black giant
Fields have already been won, but the las
day Of the worlds existence will see tn.
decisive battle. When Christ shall Leaf
forth his two brigades, the brigade Of tn,
risen dead, and the brigade of the celestia
hnaf fhn hlop rvso rrvsI Oil hoo -
the brigade from the riven sepulchre!
will take him from beneath, and tht
brigade of descending immortals will TAX
him from above, and death shall be swal
lowed up in victory.
The old braggart that threatened tn,
conquest and demolition of the planet ha,
lost his throne, has lost his scepter, ha
lost his palace, has lost his prestige, an,
the one word written over all the gates o
mausoleum and catacomb and Metropolis
on cenotaph and sarcophagus, on tn
lonely khan of the Arctic explorer and OF
the catafalque of great cathedral; write
in capitals of azalea and Gala lily, writer
in musical cadence, written in doxolog,
OF great assemblages; written on tn
sculptured door of the family vault, i
victory" Coronal word, embannere
word, apocalyptic word, chief word of tn
triumphal arch under which conqueror
return.
Victoryl Word shouted at Cullo den an
Balaklava and Blenheim, at Megiddo an
Solferino, at Marathon, where the Athe
mans drove back the Modes; at Poictiers
where Charles Martel broke the ranks o
the Saracens; at Salamis, where Themis
tocles in the great sea-fght confounde
the Persians, and at the door of tn